Part of the Do'a Iftitah

"Verily my solats, my ibadah, my life and my death I surrender to Almighty Allah, Creator and Lord of all the worlds. Never will I associate anything with Him. So am I commanded and I am of those who are Muslims."

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Israelis who wanted fair treatment for the mistreated Palestinians demonstrated against the Zionist regime in Jerusalem.

This protest however was blacked out from the Israeli and international media! As such, the whole world didn't know that even the Jews there didn't like to see Palestinians being massacred, their homes demolished and lands annexed by the Tel Aviv regime!

Allahyarham Sheikh Ahmed Deedat's predictions about the situation today in Palestine before the blessed sheikh became unwell due to his old age.

The reality of the Gaza Massacre as predicted by Almarhum Sheikh Ahmed Deedat has come home to roost.

Watch this courageous girl try her best to stop Israeli Zionist terrorist from shooting at the Palestinian youths who were throwing rocks at the Zionist terrorists to stop the Zionists from entering their areas.

May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless each and everyone of us with the best of Iman and accept our amals!

I pray that He will open up your hearts and shower you with His Guidance and Blessings.

To my brothers and sisters, fellow Children of our Father, the Prophet Adam Alaihis Salam and our Mother Sayyidatina Hawwa Radhiallahu Anha, I invite you to learn about the Life of the Last Messenger of Allah, Almighty Lord and Creator of us all, by watching this full length movie produced by the late Moustapha Akkad and starring amongst others legends of Hollywood like the late Anthony Quinn who takes on the role of Sayyidina Hamzah, the Prophet's uncle.

The movie's storyline is approved by the Islamic scholars of the world to be accurate and in accordance with historical facts.

The portrayal of the person of Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam is not shown as forbidden by the Blessed Messenger Rahmatulil Alamin.

In this movie, it is shown how things were during the advent of the last of Allah's messengers to Mankind.

Contrary to what many uninformed people would have you believe, Islam did not come into being with the arrival of Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam.

It started with the creation of the Nur of Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam from which Allah Azza Wa Jalla then created everything else that we now perceive and when Allah Rabbul Alamin created Adam our Father Alaihis Salam, Islam was revealed to him way back then1

Muhammad Khatamun Nabiyyi came to complete the revelation of Islam through the 124,000 prophets and messengers of God over Time.

Islam is not the newest faith on Earth.

It is the only Faith revealed from God Almighty Himself. The rest is just human imagination and the work of those who have vested interests of creating grandeur for themselves and their imagined deities.

This movie tells the story of the Greatest Messenger of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

Only those whose hearts are not blinkered by pride and prejudice or vain ego will come to recognize and appreciate what Muhammad al Mustafa, Rahmatulil Alamin has conveyed to us, his ummah, the last of Mankind.

May Allah Azza Wa Jalla bless and guide us to discover the Truth of Islam and what Allah's Noblest Messenger has left for us!

Ameen Ya Rabbal Alamin.

Have a blessed Jumaat!

Insya Allah!

Wassalamualaikum Warahmatulillahi Ta'ala Wabarakatuh!

Bismillahirrahmannirrahim. In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.

In our lives, we come across many challenges and situations where at times we might feel inadequate and lacking in something compared to those whom we might consider to be perfect in their beings, etcetera.

The reality is that each and every one of us are unique and created by Almighty Allah with our plus and minuses.

Watch this video and marvel at this classic example where looks do not matter but what talent is unearthed from this humble looking fellow who astonishes even the ever critical Simon Cowell, the notorious critic infamous for his sharp tongue lashings at the talent show contestants!

Verily there is a champion in each one of us that needs to be nurtured and discovered.

Believe in yourself!

Strive hard and remain committed to achieving whatever it is that you aim for!

Never give up for the second that you do, you will have lost your chances at making it!

I wonder if there will remain anyone watching this who doesn't get moved to tears listening to this outstanding person, who despite not having the looks reminiscent of the heartthrobs of the music or movie industry still manages to evoke in us a sense of marvel at what extraordinary talent and capabilities that The Almighty has imbued in him?

It's heartening to see the British general population arise and demand that the British Broadcasting Corporation stop its propaganda in helping the Zionist Israeli occupying terrorist regime and to instead highlight the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which has been turned into the world's largest open air prison but walled up and closed the borders to Egypt and blocked by the sea where the Zionist Navy patrols at will, bombing any aid vessel that dares to sail ashore!

The BBC gets whacked by the noble hearted British peace activists and MPs like Jeremy Corbin and George Galloway leading the protests.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I obtained a medical doctor's permission to republish this content in a forum where Kugan's probable causes of death was being discussed by the said doctor.

Here are his views.

"I would like to thank Mr.Poobalan for his wonderful posting of the video clip taken in the mortuary . After watching that clip I had a restless night and could not sleep the whole night . Adding to that horror I had to company my wife in watching the Horror movie in Star Movies last night . Driving to my other clinic in Butterworth, Penang this morning , the whole event kept running in my mind . As a Surgical Medical officer, I have done many postmortems. I have assisted in doing postmortems in murder cases too.

The postmortem always gives a clue on what caused the death and the estimated time of death based on the rigor mortis that has set in . As a student in medical college I have always been fascinated in Forensic Medicine .

Looking at Kugan's dead body and the wounds inflicted on him gives a very good clue on what the probable cause of death would be?

The most clearest indication of the cause of death is the froth seen coming out of his mouth . Death due to asphyxia ( suffocation ).

The video clip must have been taken before the postmortem .

I did not see any mid line incision on the chest and abdomen . This is my assertion from what we call as external postmortem .

Based on my experience , I did my own external postmortem from the video clips and the photos that I have received .

I wish there was a closer picture of the wound . I managed to zoom in to enlarge the picture to get a better view. We usually start the external postmortems from top to down but in this case I like to take it from the bottom .

First of all , Lets look at the legs . You will notice that below both the knees , the colour was darker then the thigh . That is due to pooling of blood in the lower limbs .

At the time of his death the blood did not have a chance to return back to the heart .

When a person dies in a lying down position on his back , you will notice this pooling of blood on the dependent sides of the back . In this case it was noticed on his lower limbs .

My assumption here is that he had died on a sitting position or was lying down with his feet hanging down . The blood did not have time to return back to the heart .

Moving up to the back . There is a huge bruising at the hypochondriac areas of both sides of his abdomen( near the kidney ) . This bruising is caused by the rupture of the capillary veins and arteries , which is probably due to repeated punching or kicking on the area .

The wounds on the back are not so fresh . In certain areas , there are granulation tissue showing healing . This are injuries inflicted probably 2 to 3 days prior to his death .

The wounds is most probably caused by a blunt object tearing into the skin due to pressure. Probably he was made to lie down on some rough surface and dragged on it ..

Moving to the chest . There are some amount of bruises on the chest indicating trauma to the chest . The chest wall appear sunken in . He probably has couple of rib fractures . Postmortem of the chest will confirm .

Next interesting thing clearly noticed was the abrasion on the neck with a semi circle bruise .

This is probably due to strangulation on the neck probably with a rope which caused the abrasion.

The abrasion and the bruise is position exactly on the cricoids cartilage . Probably the force would have caused the cartilage to break .

The face did not have any gross deformities . There was no signs of the 'Raccoons eyes' ( Black Eye ). He was probably slapped but not punched on his face . The absence of the Raccoons eyes indicates that there was no serious injury to the head .

There was no bleeding from the ears which also rules out any head injuries. What interests me most is the blood oozing out of the mouth and the froth .

The blood is fresh and appears as if it was coughed out. The blood is most probably from the tracheal injury .

That would have caused choking . The choking had triggered bronchospasm causing his air passages to constrict and caused difficulty to breathe .

The froth is not blood stained . That shows there was no injury to the lung tissue . Froth is usually seen in death due to asphyxia .

Another thing , when there is a tracheal injury, when a person drinks cold water , the water moves down into the trachea instead of the oesophagus causing vaso vagal inhibition and thus causing broncho spasm. Fluid accumulation in the lung also explains the white froth .

Overall I can see the body is already in rigor mortis . Rigor Mortis takes place after 6 hours after death and completes in 12 hours .

So at the time the video was taken, Kugan was already dead for more than 18 hours .

No sign of any active resuscitation is noted . His body was most probably discovered after he had died . The cause of death is due to asphyxia but most definitely not due to asthma. Historically, law enforcement officials were rarely if ever held to account.

Today, despite increased legal safeguards, law enforcement officers who flout them can still enjoy effective impunity when they are alleged to have abused or even unlawfully killed their suspects @ victims . Racist Law officers are always brutal and most brutal officers are always racist. The opinion expressed above is not the expert opinion of a Forensic Specialist . It is based on the observation and the knowledge of medicine .

The opinion here is not prejudiced towards the Police either. I hope someone from (xxxxx forum) can provide me further details of the death and what was in the postmortem report?

Does anybody have the statistics of deaths in the police lockups of Malaysia? Kugan, was just a car thief . A waste in the society . Probably a drug addict and a disgrace to our community . Some might say that he deserved to die .

If he was caught by the public and beaten to death, the public would have not made so much noise.

Some said it was his karma . He had to die a violent death due to his violent life style. Whatever is being said or done, a human is still a humanbeing . No human has the right to take another man's life .

No matter how cruel a man is, or no matter how gruesome a man's crime is , we have to respect the Law .

That separates us from those who live in the jungles . The Law was created not only to protect the innocent but also to deliver justice .

No man has the right to take the Law unto himself .

The Law punishes the criminal based on the crime committed .

Even when a person is sentenced to death, it is by death hanging and based upon the crime committed and the intention to commit such a crime . There have been deaths in the police lock up before . This death received the public's attention because we had the chance to see the dead body for our self and others through the internet .

This has become possible because of the growing unity in the Indian community .

Kugan's death is an eye opener for everyone .

The community should realize that this should not be happening in Malaysia .

A prisoner has his rights and we have to know them .

Why was Kugan questioned without the presence of a lawyer?

He should have had a lawyer present to advise him. I hope anybody who is a lawyer will explain regarding the rights of an individual when he is arrested . The community today is very upset with what they have seen recently with Kugan's death .

Are we going to prevent such incident from occurring or prevent others from sharing the same fate as Kugan or are we going to join hands in preventing those unfortunate from becoming someone like Kugan?

Who are we going to blame ?

Is the MalaysianGovernment responsible for depriving our Indian community the basic education ?

Are they responsible for the increase in poverty amongst our community ?

Why have our great leaders chosen by us , in the last 30 years not done anything to eliminate our misery and instead are busy elevating their assets?

Are we to be blamed for electing the wrong leaders ?

Do we blame Kugan's parents for their failure to nurture the son to be a good citizen ? Kugan is not a hero . He was a thief.

His death is of no great loss to society . He is not a saint or fit to be glorified and made into a statue .

However he is a part of us . He represented our failure and represented our suffering .

His death should bring about a greater unity among our community .

For the sake of our future we should thrive forward to prevent another soul from taking an early departure .

We have to educate the next generation in order to prevent another Kugan from appearing .

Let Kugan's death be a lesson to all of us and let Kugan be the Ghost of our past .

Let us thrive to build unity and prosperity in our community for the sake of our future generation . What happened to Kugan was a sad tragedy .

Whether it was his choice to choose the wrong path or was it society that drove him to choose such a path only he could have answered but those who were responsible for his early departure although they were eager to solve the case had no right to torture another human being to death! My sympathies to the family who have to live with this traumatic experience for the rest of their lives .

All we can do is to pray to God to forgive Kugan for his crimes for he has paid his dues dearly by undergoing a tremendous torture and eventually paid with his life.

As for our community, the Ghost of Kugan will remain to haunt us constantly and remind us of our sufferings whilst our elected political and society leaders sleep peacefully dreaming about their bank balances get bigger .

Justice Has Still Not Been Served.

Dr.Sreedharan

* Minor grammatical errors and typos have been corrected by me. The gist of Dr.Sreedharan's article remains untouched.

Referring to the late Kugan A/L Ananthan's death at the hands of the police in the Subang Taipan Police Station's lockup, there have been conflicting views about his death.

I came across this comment asking why people are protesting about the death of a car thief?

The details of the forum will not be disclosed due to security reasons but the gist of this forumer's views merits consideration for publishing.

Here are the contents of the comment @ from a Malaysian Indian lady.

I don't even understand why there was a protest?

The police just savedthe country from a hooligan? It's their job done well.

How many times do we actually see the police doing a good job. We should be rejoicing???

I couldn't be more happier that this scumbag had died. He has nothing to dowith me, of course. He died of natural causes. Period.

These idiots are drunkards and drug addicts and most of their internal system is almost ruined. A little whack is enough to cause death. Even if he died due to excessive beatings and torture, he deserves it.

He was a thief and there was proof. Even if there is no proof, he was watched and monitored for some time before he getting caught. That is enough.

Imagine at 22, he is already a thief.

He probably did other petty crimes at home, school, housing area before graduating to other states.

He'll just stay in prison for a couple of years "training" for other crimes and eventually come out and probably rob a bank, start raping, killing and whatever other crimes as he age and he will know how to escape without being charged.

These kind of people never change. It's their basic character.

Of course, in this case the only person who should be sad is the mother for not bringing up her son properly and causing harm to the society.

Stealing cars not a harm, eh?

Wait till you get your car(s) stolen and then not being able to get loan due to high commitment or other reasons and get into chronic depression after that?

For the other's, you should be glad and thank God he is dead!

You andyour family are saved from being raped or robbed or slaughtered ordismembered or whatever in the future. Think of that. Please be positive and look at the bright side.

If you are afraid of your kids ending up like him, then bring them upwell, give more love and less money, be with them, provide not only more academic tuition's but also send to religious classes, talk to them more instead of letting them talk to their friends, don't let them watch Tamil movies which contain excessive sexual acts and fighting's (Tamil movie's are best known for that), check out their friends and their friend's family background.

If you have to, check their caste as well. Not to be an extremist, the caste system was created for a reason. Go figure.

Most importantly strengthen the family bond and your children will not end up like this garbage Kugan.

It's a great thing a thief had died. He was meant to die that way. It's his Karma.

Having said all that, nevertheless, we should be careful of innocentpeople being tortured to death.

Police shouldn't be able to abuse their power and over torture suspects.

The suspect could have admitted due to the torture and so, without the torture, they will keep mum because he is tied to some pact made to the other members of the gang.

Apparently, they take turns to go into jail. Most of the time police can't do anything because they use protection spells (pukau as well), no witness, no proof, no evidence but they are very sure the suspect is the person who committed the crime.

Sometimes, they use some "special" officers to settle the case silently. They have to, in order to keep the peace in the country.

In a recent case, the police didn't even lay a finger on the suspect who caused armed robbery due to lack of evidence.

He was later linked to some other petty theft and will be out soon to commit greater crimes.

Thanks to this "nice" Malay Inspector.

Another Indian ASP wanted to settle a case out of court between 2 parties where one person was threatened to be killed because both were Indians.

He said that since we are Indians, we shouldn't be fighting even knowing the fact, one party were gangsters and the other is a female?

So, imagine we have Indian policeman who can't even be bothered of the life of another Indian..can we really blame the government or the Home Minister?

Just accept if anyone says there are more Indian gangsters..we are the only race having extremely violent Tamil movies being watched by all age.

Vijay takes aruval @ 'machete' to save the city but our gangsters take the aruval @ 'machete' to kill someone or rob them.

Probably they should kill all suspects after he admits to the crime tosave the world from his future crimes.

I know mothers who insists their child is innocent just to protect them even knowing they have committed the crime.

If truly an innocent person is caught, then it's best to get a lawyer immediately after he is being arrested.

If your son is really a thug and by accident he dies, then be thankful he is not alive to kill you in the end to pay for his drinks or drugs.

Then again, as usual people will argue on the above statements. Waittill you are the one affected and unjustly treated by the police (because sama bangsa), then you would know the pain of the other.

Watch Professor Avram Noah Chomsky, Author, Peace Activist, Critic of US Foreign Policy, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, speak about the US backed and financed Israeli regime's atrocities against the Gaza population of Palestinians in the 20 day onslaught and butchery that has been actually planned well in advance by both the Americans and Israelis.

Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words.

He deserves to be taken seriously - both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.

Mitchell is to focus his attention on the Israel-Palestine problem, in the wake of the recent US-Israeli invasion of Gaza.

During the murderous assault, Obama remained silent apart from a few platitudes, because, he said, there is only one president - a fact that did not silence him on many other issues.

His campaign did, however, repeat his statement that "if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that."

He was referring to Israeli children, not the hundreds of Palestinian children being butchered by US arms, about whom he could not speak, because there was only one president.

On January 22, however, the one president was Barack Obama, so he could speak freely about these matters - avoiding, however, the attack on Gaza, which had, conveniently, been called off just before the inauguration.

Obama's talk emphasized his commitment to a peaceful settlement. He left its contours vague, apart from one specific proposal: "the Arab peace initiative," Obama said, "contains constructive elements that could help advance these efforts.

Now is the time for Arab states to act on the initiative's promise by supporting the Palestinian government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, taking steps towards normalizing relations with Israel, and by standing up to extremism that threatens us all."

Obama is not directly falsifying the Arab League proposal, but the carefully framed deceit is instructive.

The Arab League peace proposal does indeed call for normalization of relations with Israel - in the context - repeat, in the context of a two-state settlement in terms of the longstanding international consensus, which the US and Israel have blocked for over 30 years, in international isolation, and still do.

The core of the Arab League proposal, as Obama and his Mideast advisers know very well, is its call for a peaceful political settlement in these terms, which are well-known, and recognized to be the only basis for the peaceful settlement to which Obama professes to be committed.

The omission of that crucial fact can hardly be accidental, and signals clearly that Obama envisions no departure from US rejectionism.

His call for the Arab states to act on a corollary to their proposal, while the US ignores even the existence of its central content, which is the precondition for the corollary, surpasses cynicism.

The most significant acts to undermine a peaceful settlement are the daily US-backed actions in the occupied territories, all recognized to be criminal: taking over valuable land and resources and constructing what the leading architect of the plan, Ariel Sharon, called "Bantustans" for Palestinians - an unfair comparison because the Bantustans were far more viable than the fragments left to Palestinians under Sharon's conception, now being realized.

But the US and Israel even continue to oppose a political settlement in words, most recently in December 2008, when the US and Israel (and a few Pacific islands) voted against a UN resolution supporting "the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination" (passed 173 to 5, US-Israel opposed, with evasive pretexts).

Obama had not one word to say about the settlement and infrastructure developments in the West Bank, and the complex measures to control Palestinian existence, designed to undermine the prospects for a peaceful two-state settlement.

His silence is a grim refutation of his oratorical flourishes about how "I will sustain an active commitment to seek two states living side by side in peace and security."

Also unmentioned is Israel's use of US arms in Gaza, in violation not only of international but also US law.

Or Washington's shipment of new arms to Israel right at the peak of the US-Israeli attack, surely not unknown to Obama's Middle East advisers.

Obama was firm, however, that smuggling of arms to Gaza must be stopped.

He endorses the agreement of Condoleeza Rice and Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni that the Egyptian-Gaza border must be closed - a remarkable exercise of imperial arrogance, as the Financial Times observed: "as they stood in Washington congratulating each other, both officials seemed oblivious to the fact that they were making a deal about an illegal trade on someone else's border - Egypt in this case.

The next day, an Egyptian official described the memorandum as `fictional'." Egypt's objections were ignored.

Returning to Obama's reference to the "constructive" Arab League proposal, as the wording indicates, Obama persists in restricting support to the defeated party in the January 2006 election, the only free election in the Arab world, to which the US and Israel reacted, instantly and overtly, by severely punishing Palestinians for opposing the will of the masters.

A minor technicality is that Abbas's term ran out on January 9, and that Fayyad was appointed without confirmation by the Palestinian parliament (many of them kidnapped and in Israeli prisons).

Ha'aretz describes Fayyad as "a strange bird in Palestinian politics. On the one hand, he is the Palestinian politician most esteemed by Israel and the West.

However, on the other hand, he has no electoral power whatsoever in Gaza or the West Bank."

The report also notes Fayyad's "close relationship with the Israeli establishment," notably his friendship with Sharon's extremist adviser Dov Weiglass.

Though lacking popular support, he is regarded as competent and honest, not the norm in the US-backed political sectors.

Obama's insistence that only Abbas and Fayyad exist conforms to the consistent Western contempt for democracy unless it is under control.

Obama provided the usual reasons for ignoring the elected government led by Hamas. "To be a genuine party to peace," Obama declared, "the quartet [US, EU, Russia, UN] has made it clear that Hamas must meet clear conditions: recognize Israel's right to exist; renounce violence; and abide by past agreements."

Unmentioned, also as usual, is the inconvenient fact that the US and Israel firmly reject all three conditions.

In international isolation, they bar a two-state settlement including a Palestinian state; they of course do not renounce violence; and they reject the quartet's central proposal, the "road map."

Israel formally accepted it, but with 14 reservations that effectively eliminate its contents (tacitly backed by the US).

It is the great merit of Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, to have brought these facts to public attention for the first time - and in the mainstream, the only time.

It follows, by elementary reasoning, that neither the US nor Israel is a "genuine party to peace." But that cannot be. It is not even a phrase in the English language.

It is perhaps unfair to criticize Obama for this further exercise of cynicism, because it is close to universal, unlike his scrupulous evisceration of the core component of the Arab League proposal, which is his own novel contribution.

Also near universal are the standard references to Hamas: a terrorist organization, dedicated to the destruction of Israel (or maybe all Jews).

Omitted are the inconvenient facts that the US-Israel are not only dedicated to the destruction of any viable Palestinian state, but are steadily implementing those policies.

Or that unlike the two rejectionist states, Hamas has called for a two-state settlement in terms of the international consensus: publicly, repeatedly, explicitly.

Obama began his remarks by saying: "Let me be clear: America is committed to Israel's security. And we will always support Israel's right to defend itself against legitimate threats."

There was nothing about the right of Palestinians to defend themselves against far more extreme threats, such as those occurring daily, with US support, in the occupied territories. But that again is the norm.

Also normal is the enunciation of the principle that Israel has the right to defend itself. That is correct, but vacuous: so does everyone. But in the context the cliche is worse than vacuous: it is more cynical deceit.

The issue is not whether Israel has the right to defend itself, like everyone else, but whether it has the right to do so by force. No one, including Obama, believes that states enjoy a general right to defend themselves by force: it is first necessary to demonstrate that there are no peaceful alternatives that can be tried. In this case, there surely are.

A narrow alternative would be for Israel to abide by a cease-fire, for example, the cease-fire proposed by Hamas political leader Khaled Mishal a few days before Israel launched its attack on December 27. Mishal called for restoring the 2005 agreement.

That agreement called for an end to violence and uninterrupted opening of the borders, along with an Israeli guarantee that goods and people could move freely between the two parts of occupied Palestine, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The agreement was rejected by the US and Israel a few months later, after the free election of January 2006 turned out "the wrong way." There are many other highly relevant cases.

The broader and more significant alternative would be for the US and Israel to abandon their extreme rejectionism, and join the rest of the world - including the Arab states and Hamas - in supporting a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus.

It should be noted that in the past 30 years there has been one departure from US-Israeli rejectionism: the negotiations at Taba in January 2001, which appeared to be close to a peaceful resolution when Israel prematurely called them off.

It would not, then, be outlandish for Obama to agree to join the world, even within the framework of US policy, if he were interested in doing so.

In short, Obama's forceful reiteration of Israel's right to defend itself is another exercise of cynical deceit - though, it must be admitted, not unique to him, but virtually universal.

The deceit is particularly striking in this case because the occasion was the appointment of Mitchell as special envoy.

Mitchell's primary achievement was his leading role in the peaceful settlement in northern Ireland. It called for an end to IRA terror and British violence. Implicit is the recognition that while Britain had the right to defend itself from terror, it had no right to do so by force, because there was a peaceful alternative: recognition of the legitimate grievances of the Irish Catholic community that were the roots of IRA terror.

When Britain adopted that sensible course, the terror ended. The implications for Mitchell's mission with regard to Israel-Palestine are so obvious that they need not be spelled out. And omission of them is, again, a striking indication of the commitment of the Obama administration to traditional US rejectionism and opposition to peace, except on its extremist terms.

Obama also praised Jordan for its "constructive role in training Palestinian security forces and nurturing its relations with Israel" - which contrasts strikingly with US-Israeli refusal to deal with the freely elected government of Palestine, while savagely punishing Palestinians for electing it with pretexts which, as noted, do not withstand a moment's scrutiny.

It is true that Jordan joined the US in arming and training Palestinian security forces, so that they could violently suppress any manifestation of support for the miserable victims of US-Israeli assault in Gaza, also arresting supporters of Hamas and the prominent journalist Khaled Amayreh, while organizing their own demonstrations in support of Abbas and Fatah, in which most participants "were civil servants and school children who were instructed by the PA to attend the rally," according to the Jerusalem Post. Our kind of democracy.

Obama made one further substantive comment: "As part of a lasting cease-fire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime..."

He did not, of course, mention that the US-Israel had rejected much the same agreement after the January 2006 election, and that Israel had never observed similar subsequent agreements on borders.

Also missing is any reaction to Israel's announcement that it rejected the cease-fire agreement, so that the prospects for it to be "lasting" are not auspicious.

As reported at once in the press, "Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who takes part in security deliberations, told Army Radio on Thursday that Israel wouldn't let border crossings with Gaza reopen without a deal to free [Gilad] Schalit" (AP, Jan 22); ‘Israel to keep Gaza crossings closed...

An official said the government planned to use the issue to bargain for the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by the Islamist group since 2006 (Financial Times, Jan. 23);

"Earlier this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that progress on Corporal Shalit's release would be a precondition to opening up the border crossings that have been mostly closed since Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in 2007" (Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 23); "an Israeli official said there would be tough conditions for any lifting of the blockade, which he linked with the release of Gilad Shalit" (FT, Jan. 23); among many others.

Shalit's capture is a prominent issue in the West, another indication of Hamas's criminality.

Whatever one thinks about it, it is uncontroversial that capture of a soldier of an attacking army is far less of a crime than kidnapping of civilians, exactly what Israeli forces did the day before the capture of Shalit, invading Gaza city and kidnapping two brothers, then spiriting them across the border where they disappeared into Israel's prison complex.

Unlike the much lesser case of Shalit, that crime was virtually unreported and has been forgotten, along with Israel's regular practice for decades of kidnapping civilians in Lebanon and on the high seas and dispatching them to Israeli prisons, often held for many years as hostages. But the capture of Shalit bars a cease-fire.

Obama's State Department talk about the Middle East continued with "the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan... the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism."

A few hours later, US planes attacked a remote village in Afghanistan, intending to kill a Taliban commander.

"Village elders, though, told provincial officials there were no Taliban in the area, which they described as a hamlet populated mainly by shepherds. Women and children were among the 22 dead, they said, according to Hamididan Abdul Rahmzai, the head of the provincial council" (LA Times, Jan. 24).

Afghan president Karzai's first message to Obama after he was elected in November was a plea to end the bombing of Afghan civilians, reiterated a few hours before Obama was sworn in.

This was considered as significant as Karzai's call for a timetable for departure of US and other foreign forces.

The rich and powerful have their "responsibilities."

Among them, the New York Times reported, is to "provide security" in southern Afghanistan, where "the insurgency is homegrown and self-sustaining." All familiar. From Pravda in the 1980s, for example.

Comments

The damage the Bush/Cheney neo-conservative war mongering American administration inflicted onto the cause of liberals in the third world cannot be overstated.

Here comes Obama and deflates the Obama mania in the Middle East and Muslim world as well as, I would argue, many in the liberal western quarters in his first speech on the Middle East. That will surely be a reality check to the Palestinians.

United States is a country of institutions that is biased to the core when it comes to the Palestinian question.

Over 1300 Palestinian dead, hundreds of whom are children, thousands injured, lives chattered... are not worth even a fictitious empathy by the first African American president.

Obama's words and action so far seem to condone the Israeli massacres and support their approach of subjugating the Palestinians in Gaza.

A first class lesson in democracy to the Middle East from the United States of America...

Hey Carl,I agree with what you say, but I think you're missing the point. Israel isn't (and has never been) an entity on its own. As you say, it's financially supported by the US.

As such, it is morally supported by the US. I'm an Israeli citizen- I hear the talk in the street. When Israelis (government and citizens) talk about the UN or international law, they do it with arrogance- they learned from the best. In regards to the US, the question on on every ignorant reporter's mind is "will they side with us, this time?".

The answer is of course "Yes they will, they always do". Even when international relation blunders occur, such as PM Olmert braggin' to the boys about him being THE reason why "Condolisa" voted the way she did in the UN.

Chomsky said it, and I believe it to be true, the only way a boycott on American funds to Israel will happen, is if there is pressure from the people.

So I support you, in your call to cut off the money- let's hope you manage to somehow drown out the barrage of dribble from Fox news and other networks. Good luck.

Like all US presidents, Obama now has the blood of innocents on his hands.

We know what needs to be done about Iraq and Afghanistan--'Out Now!--and we need to continue insisting on it, not only because it is just, but because doing anything else will end up destroying anything positive he wants to do.

But I admit to the sin of despair on the Middle East. I'm not nearly as certain as Noam Chomsky about the prospects for a two-state solution or Ali's one-state solution either.

I can't see a positive role for Mitchell or anyone from the outside in the face of Israeli arrogance. Sane voices in their press are a small minority.

I think the most positive thing the US can do it cut off the subsidy to Israel, starting with the military support.

That's not likely at the moment, but all that's left for us here at this point is to build the support among organized voters to cut off the money.

It's a long, tough road, but the Israelis don't really give a damn about anything else we might do or say, and without some organized clout on this topic, neither does Congress or the White House. They're marching to their own drummers on the road to perdition.

According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar during the 1980–92 period, and was the eighth most-cited source.[13][14][15] He is also considered a prominent cultural figure.[16] At the same time, his status as a leading critic of US foreign policy has made him a controversial figure.[17]'

It's heartening to know that not everyone is blinded by the euphoria over the American President is now Barack Obama and no longer the murderous fool who presided before him.

Yet, even as we know that the Israeli illegal occupation of Palestinian land is wrong and that the USA and Britain are the ones behind this open robbery of a once sovereign people, treachery of the Arab leaders and their disunity over this rampant occupation, massacre and continued occupation of Palestine before the very eyes of the world's so called United Nations entity, makes me not hold any hopes for the world body to be able to do anything about this injustice towards the Palestinians.

When the Israeli regime can blatantly disregard the countless resolutions passed by the UN Security Council against it and the USA veto any such resolutions, it makes the UN redundant and the continuous participation of all other countries in the UN, a clear waste of time and money!

There is no other alternative but for Muslim nations to force Israel out by force but in actuality, the leaders of these so called Muslim countries are plain cowards who do not abide by what Allahu Ta'ala commands them and they fear death exactly as what the Holy Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam prophesied 1400 over years ago?

I for one do not have an iota of respect anymore for anyone of these Organisation of Islamic Conference tricksters who put up a facade of being the leaders of the Muslims.

To hell with these munafiks for they do not stand up or protect the lives of all oppressed and persecuted Muslims worldwide.

The UN, OIC, Arab League, etc. are all useless organisations that do not have the balls to stand up to the rogue regime of Israel for behind Israel stands the USA and Britain, the world's imperialists and colonialists who are behind most of the world population's troubles ever since they came into being.

We might not be able to do much for the Palestinians physically being bloggers but we can help spread the message about the deceit being carried out by smooth talkers such as Obama.

In short, the honeymoon is over!

Here are some videos of Obama for what he truly is? An American President who is actually a kowtowing to Israel Zionist stooge.

There are many more videos proving American President Barack Hussein Obama Jr.'s obesiance to the powerful Israeli Zionist lobby in the determining of who gets to be the American President?

Without the Zionist Israeli seal of approval, Barack Obama Jr will never get even to be considered for nomination of the Democratic Presidential candidate for the most powerful political seat in the whole wide world.

So, Barack Obama Jr. has no option but to kowtow and kiss the Zionists ass if he wants to continue being the American President?

Knowing the treacherous way that the Zionists operate, if he ever gets out of line from his oath of allegiance to the State of Israel, there is no guarantee that he'd not end up as the assassinated late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy?

So there you have it folks.

Palestine will still be in deep shit for as long as any of the cowardly so called world organisations in the form of the UN, OIC and Arab League continue to shiwer and cower before the oh so mighty Zionist entity!

As far as I am concerned, sure I was happy that the bastard George W.Bush Jr. is no longer the USA's President but my happiness over the ascension of Barack Hussein Obama Jr. as the current US President is however shortlived in realising that the plight of the world's Muslims as well as other faith adherents are in no better position today than what it has been since America took over the role of colonial imperialists from Britain and are now oppressing the rest of the world to kowtow to them or else?

Maybe Hizbut at Tahrir have been right all along!

It's high time that Muslims wake up to the reality that if they remain disunited, they will surely perish by being eliminated a people at a time as what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and the Messenger Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam have been telling us all along?

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There have been some who question my nickname and feel that I am proclaiming myself to be on par with the actual MAHAGURU Himself ~ Allah the Almighty Supreme God of us all?

Well, to these obviously short sighted and blinkered folks, I'd like to draw their attention that its nothing as such!

Its just a nickname you imbeciles!

Get out of your mental rut and start opening your eyes to the reality that this is just a blog and not the Holy Scripture professing my holiness or whatever self imagined catastrophe you deduce!!!

I'm just a Muslim blogger for God's Sake sharing my views of whatever I feel strongly about and blogging as I can while I am still able to?

He knows me better than you confused lot!

Do you seriously believe that I, a mortal being claim any such glory that is truly reserved for Him, my beloved Allahu Rabbul Alamin?

Sheeesh...you must be truly mad if you ever think so?

Go study my articles and see if you can find any evidence of my claim to His Greatness?

By that I direct the above reprimand to the ones questioning my nickname?

Stick to the content of my articles and stop scrutinizing my nick!!!

So help me God!

Allahu Ta'ala that is!

No offense meant to the rest of you, my learned and honorable readers. :)

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